Professional photographers sound off on what it was like to shoot for the magazine entirely on iPhones.

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You intentionally grab a café table next to the window on overcast days and you're a pro at tinkering with your eggy photos on VSCO, but have you ever gone on a professional photoshoot with just your iPhone? Imagine the surprise the photographers we worked with on our March Culture Issue experienced when they got the call saying they'd have to ditch their DSLRs and tethers for the hippest pocket camera around. We spoke with the photographers who made the issue happen and found out what they think of a print magazine going full-on Instagram (at least, the 43 pages in the magazine feature well) for an issue.

What were your first thoughts when you found out you could only use an iPhone?

Daymon Gardner (New Orleans-based photographer who shot "Three Days of Music, 110 Gallons of Queso"): I thought it was a joke at first. I only found out that I couldn't use my camera about three days before the shoot.

Matt Haas (Chicago-based photographer, who shot "Brooklyn is Everywhere"): I needed to upgrade from an iPhone 5 to a 6S, and I had never used anything like it to shoot something for print, so it wasn't just me putting faith in the phone, but also in the magazine's idea.

Cait Oppermann (Brooklyn-based photographer, who shot "What Are We Waiting For?"): I was really excited about it, because despite being a photographer as my job, the camera I use most in my everyday life is actually my iPhone. In some ways, it's the camera I'm most comfortable with. But I actually felt kind of weird doing it professionally.

Did you need any auxiliary equipment to make it work?

Haas: I went to Best Buy to get a selfie stick and an attachment that would fit the iPhone to my tripod, so it would be still and straight like a DSLR. Let's say my equipment bag weighed a lot less.

Graydon: We found an adapter that would click the iPhone onto a tripod. Then, because the iPhone lens is approximately equivalent to a 35 mm lens on a DSLR, we bought a few accessory lenses, one of which made the camera more like a normal lens of around 50 mm. Another was a wide-angle and the third was so good for close-up shots, it would've been better suited for taking photos of ants.

Gardner: I had already lined up two assistants, portable strobe gear, and some reflectors. When I found out it was iPhone-only, I kept the assistants and some of the reflectors but ditched the rest.

Graydon: In the car on the way over, we were joking that we should take the portrait with a selfie stick. And somehow the prop stylist had a selfie stick that she bought at a drug store to us within 10 minutes of that idea...at 8:30 a.m.

Michael Graydon + Nikole Herriott

The iPhone shot of James Murphy, Christina Topsoe, Justin Chearno, and Randy Moon of Four Horsemen in the March feature well. Photo: Michael Graydon + Nikole Herriott

What was it like?

Gardner: Usually, I feel like my camera is an extension of my hand. The iPhone was even more liberating: I was talking with subjects while shooting, and it kept everything really conversational and loose.

Graydon: I've been a photographer for about 20 years, and I've been through 8x10 cameras, film—you name it. In the past, the bigger and scarier-looking the camera you pulled out, the more intense and professional you looked. Now, you have to let go of the ego you attach to the tool, and the iPhone is the ultimate expression of that.

Haas: People eating at Milktooth thought I was a tourist gone rogue who was sneaking into the kitchen to take photos.

Opperman: I felt like a creep, because people didn't know I was shooting this on assignment, so they were like, "Why is this crazy lady taking so many pictures of me waiting on line?" On the street, when someone points a camera at you, you're like, "What am I doing wrong? Why is this person taking pictures of me?"

What was the hardest part?

Gardner: I can't quite accomplish the depth of field that I want, even when I do the thing where you touch the screen on the subject and move the slider up.

Opperman: Trying to keep the light consistent. I was shooting for almost two hours but what's going to be printed was shot from across the street over the course of about 30 seconds.

Nikole Herriott (Toronto-based photographer who shot "Four Horsemen Walk Into a Bar" with Michael Graydon): The weird thing you don't think about is that you're constantly looking at your phone. Our friend was sending us texts just to bug us and our notifications just kept coming up and distracting us at the shoot.

Alex Lau

Tricks to make your green lunch a whole lot sweeter. Photo: Alex Lau

What was post-production like?

Opperman: I took an Amtrak back from DC to NY and the fun part was sitting on the train, doing what I normally do—a.k.a. playing with my phone—except this time it was for work. I didn't have to get back to my computer and start this whole process.

Haas: We still edited everything on the computer. I used the same principles as when I shoot Canon; for instance, having a really strong composition is important.

__Gardner:__I'd recommend sticking with your choice of editing software; I still like working with the photos in Capture One.

Cait Oppermann

The (very) long line at Rose's Luxury. Photo: Cait Oppermann

Any tips for amateur iPhone photographers that you learned along the way?

Haas: I learned that you can lock autofocus and then adjust the exposure. Instagram has filters, but if you use this trick and get good exposure from the beginning, you won't need them.

Gardner: I had a couple of accessories like macro lenses with me, but I didn't find them very effective. The beauty of iPhone photography is that it's very simple.

Would you do it again?

Haas: It's not like I'm going to start doing all my projects with my cell phone, but now I definitely use it more for Instagram.

Gardner: Photography is good no matter what you use, and I think there are iPhone photographers out there who take insanely good photos. I still prefer to shoot with my Canon, but Mardi Gras just started here in New Orleans, and I'll definitely have my iPhone with me.